


all the universes is ours

by Sylver_Enigma



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, a lot of AUs basically, this story is a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:35:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23240053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylver_Enigma/pseuds/Sylver_Enigma
Summary: The year Keith turned eighteen, he woke up in a life similar to his own, and yet altogether different. While his consciousness and name remained his own, the world around him changed, and even his brain changed with it, his own memories lain dormant and new ones he’d definitely not lived through himself sat casually in their place.In other words, Keith keeps waking up in alternate universes. He'd also like it if the alternates in his body stopped getting so friendly with Lance.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 69





	all the universes is ours

The year Keith turned eighteen, he woke up in a life similar to his own, and yet altogether different. While his consciousness and name remained his own, the world around him changed, and even his brain changed with it, his own memories lain dormant and new ones he’d definitely not lived through himself sat casually in their place.

He reacted as well as could be expected, which is to say, he panicked. No one understood why he was acting so strange suddenly. To everyone else, he had been completely normal right up till that day, but for him, he had woken up in a strange world where he had to pretend he was familiar living with people he didn’t know (adoptive parents, his memories told him), where Shiro wasn’t his best friend and mentor but a teacher aid who gave him a bit more attention than other students because of his attitude problem.

He tried to tell Shiro about his memories, but he had kindly brushed him off, telling him that he had a creative mind. Keith knew it wasn’t his universe. He had a whole seventeen years of different memories behind the new set of memories, but Keith could only scowl because if Shiro didn’t believe him, no one else would.

As it was, it was easy to play his role. He was still distinctly himself and with the memories of this body’s experiences overriding his own, it wasn’t hard for him to not act out of character as long as he was just himself. His body automatically responded according to these other memories.

A week passed before he woke up back in his actual bedroom. He immediately went to tell Shiro what had happened, but once again his best friend didn’t see why he was so worked up. Keith had apparently passed through the week like normal, and when Keith paused to think about it, memories came up unbidden of the past week, but they felt like the memories of the other body—as in, memories of this body that he was sure he had not experienced himself.

He tried to explain this to Shiro who told him he’d simply had a vivid dream. And once again Keith realized he was on his own. It was not the best start to his first year of university.

The universe-jumping continued erratically from then on. Sometimes Keith would only stay a day, sometimes he would stay as long as a month.

The longest jump lasted a little more than two months in a world where magic was normal. It was much harder to adjust to than all his previous jumps, because for one thing, even with the knowledge and the muscle memory of using magic, he didn’t have the right instincts or _feel_ for it. 

Second of all, Keith was a loner in this universe, as he was in most universes, but it was more than just his rude demeanor that chased people away here. His mom had abandoned him when he was only a baby, his dad died protecting him from a fire, and Shiro, the only person he trusted in this world—hell, in the whole goddamn _multiverse_ —had gone missing and was officially declared dead a few months ago.

After Shiro disappeared, Keith was called the Mage of Misfortune by his peers in the Rosaline Academy of Magics. It was whispered amongst the students that if anyone got close to him, they were doomed to terrible fates.

Keith woke into this world with frustrated tears falling from his eyes, his head in his arms where he had evidently fallen asleep after several restless nights of searching for clues about Shiro’s disappearance. He woke up alone and struggling with the loss of his only friend before he even fully understood where he was or why his chest was achingly empty.

His circumstances being what they were, it wasn’t so strange to other students that he suddenly began to struggle in school, even though his memory told him he was supposed to be a naturally very gifted mage.

Enter Lance. Lance was loud and acted dumb and altogether obnoxious, but he was also the first person other than Shiro who seemed to care about Keith, who heard the rumors and ignored them.

Lance approached him one day, asked if he needed some help with the warming spell they were reviewing in class that day (Keith had no handle on controlling temperature—he kept setting items on fire instead). Lance easily doused the burning doll in front of Keith with a water-based spell and shot him a grin as if they had been friends all their life. They weren’t. Keith double-checked his memories and couldn’t get a single clear memory of the other mage in any of them. But Lance’s expression was sincere, and Keith thought it harmless to accept his help. That was his first mistake.

“It’s different for everybody, but for me, I like to imagine something that makes me feel warm, like in the chest, instead of, y’know, literal fire,” Lance explained as he drew out the rune in the air in front of his stuffed animal. “I imagine my family, usually. They’ve made me warm clothes, cook warm food, give lots of warm hugs. But more than that, they make me _feel_ warm inside.”

Lance’s rune flashed and the stuffed shark glowed with it. When the rune disappeared, the sharked dimmed again. He held the toy out for Keith to feel. It was pleasantly warm to the touch and it seemed to spread from his fingertips through the rest of his body like he was receiving a loving hug from it. His hold tightened on the shark as he hid the way his hands trembled, overwhelmed by the feeling.

As the days went by, he quickly acclimatized to his life, and the body’s memories began to feel more and more natural in his head, especially as he began to make new, special memories of his own. Lance’s sincerity continued to pull him in like a magnet and he easily roped Keith into his little friend group, until it was not unusual for anyone to see the four of them together.

The next time Keith cast a warming spell, he imagined Hunk’s baking, Pidge’s teasing, and Lance’s smile. The spell came out flawlessly.

The next day, he woke up in an unfamiliar room.

It was like being doused in ice cold water. He knew he would never see them again. The only universe he ever returned to was his own. He tried to make it hurt less, tried to convince himself that that universe in particular was all a dream, too good to be true and thus it _wasn’t_ true.

But he had had a whole two months of memories that continued to crop up subconsciously in the way he sometimes tried to cast a casual spell or the way he felt for the natural magic that permeated the air in that universe but could not sense at all in this one. It could not be written off as a dream.

His father was still deceased in this universe, but his mother had never abandoned him no matter all her hardships as a single mother and Shiro was not missing. As for Lance and his friends…they did not exist in this universe, or were otherwise not involved in his life in any way.

The next universe after that, Pidge and Hunk still weren’t present, but Lance attended the same school. They shared a few classes, but the Keith of this universe had never noticed him. _Keith_ himself did, however, and he saw the way the other boy glared daggers at him whenever he so much as looked in his direction.

He heard the boy he had come to find comfort in joke about him behind his back to his friends (literally, since Lance always sat behind him and spoke as loudly as possible), writing off Keith’s loner tendencies as him being a conceited and privileged little shit. It was such a sharp contrast from the Lance he had gotten to know. It was ice all over again, pricking at the cracks in his chest.

He decided then not to become too attached to anybody except Shiro (though Shiro also wasn’t around in every universe, he was in enough of them). With his erratic lifestyle forcing him to be able to adapt at the drop of a coin, Keith became all the more detached, trusting only himself.

Sometimes several jumps happened in succession that were not his own universe, and he feared not being able to get back to his own, but he always did in the end. He could at least expect to stay longer in his original universe than all the other ones. He at least trusted every alternate version of himself to be able to act out what he was like when they occupied his body like his other selves probably trusted him.

Keith figured life would continue this way until he died, and he didn’t think he minded that much. Even when Shiro forced him to become acquainted with Matt and his little sister Pidge and by association, Hunk and Lance, Keith walked the line of being friends with them and being closed off from them.

He knew he was the outsider of the whole group, especially when Shiro and Matt were away with their own projects, and Pidge, Hunk, and Lance sometimes (often) hung out with each other without Keith.

It was fine.

He eventually began to notice them appearing more and more often, until they were around as often as Shiro in alternate universes. He also got to know one Allura and Coran popping up in several universes but had yet to appear in his own.

As distant as he tried to be, he was curious and began to feel off if the whole group wasn’t all together in a universe, so he couldn’t help but look out for familiar silver and orange hair in his own universe.

One day, Shiro introduced a friend from some of his classes to the group. Keith almost sighed in relief when Allura greeted them and the group easily integrated her.

“You know, as closed off as you try to be, I can see you like them. Why can’t you try getting along better with everyone?” Shiro sighed. He was constantly trying to get Keith to open up, and even though some semblance of consistency was starting to appear in his lives, Keith was still reluctant. “Especially with Lance.”

And there was why.

“I’m not trying to be anything,” Keith said, not meeting Shiro’s doubtful look and dismissing the conversation as he always did.

In several universes lately, Keith was shocked to become privy to private, intimate memories between himself and Lance, and usually found himself sometimes dating Lance in that universe or more often pining helplessly after him. It made things extremely awkward the moment he was back in his original universe after that first encounter with boyfriend Lance.

(He had woken up tired that day, his phone alarm ringing in his ears and warning him to get to his job at the nearby cafe. This Keith led a monotonous life, working as a barista almost every day, so Keith was sure nothing exciting would happen for the duration of his stay in this body, right up until Lance came to visit him at the cafe and kissed him casually on the lips. The other boy had no idea the chaos he’d left Keith in as he ordered his usual and chatted away like normal.)

Now, Keith didn’t like Lance. Not in _his_ universe—No, of course not. His Lance had even _said_ he didn’t like Keith, he was very vocal about it. No way would Keith like a guy who obviously hated him.

But with increasing frequency, he found himself in universes where they were in a relationship. With so many memories of Lance’s sweet side, his endearing habits, his daily routines, Keith found it hard not to fall prone to his other bodies’ habits. Whenever his universe’s Lance was around, he had to force himself not to smile so widely or fondly, he had to keep turning away when he found himself staring too long. Sometimes he even found himself making aborted movements toward Lance, like reaching for his hand or brushing shoulders or even leaning in expecting a kiss.

He was sure Pidge would notice soon if she didn’t already. In too many universes, she was always first to notice Keith pining away if Shiro hadn’t already. But whatever. It was still fine.

He just needed to stay away from Lance.

__________

Keith woke up to a strange sensation tickling along his left arm, like someone was writing on him. When he turned to look through bleary vision, there was blue writing appearing on his skin.

Blinking away sleep, Keith sat up and stared in wonder at the words as they appeared.

_What the hell._ He thought, bewildered for a second before it clicked. _Oh. My soulmate._

Keith let the universe around him sink in. Soulmates existed in this world. Everyone was linked to a special other, sometimes several special others. Whatever the case, the soulmate bond went beyond romantic or platonic, it was transcendent. It linked people who’s destinies entwined together.

Keith felt unsettled by the idea, warring with the part of his mind that found it normal. Somehow, it was harder to accept this world’s mechanics than any other magical universe had been, but a sentence written in a familiar scrawl splayed across his arm, unmistakably from Keith’s special other.

_Are you awake? Sorry to disturb if you’re not. I just can’t get to sleep. Or, I mean, I was asleep but now I’m awake and yeah. Can’t sleep._

Keith traced his fingers against the words, chasing the phantom pen. Although the Keith of this universe had yet to meet the person writing on his arm, he had a strong feeling he knew exactly who it was.

Keith scoffed. The universe was mocking him.

**_I’m awake now._** Keith wrote with the red pen conveniently placed on his bedside drawer. **_What’s up?_**

_I had a weird dream…_

The tip of the phantom blue pen lingered on Keith’s skin, deliberating and uncertain. The sensation was simultaneously new and old to Keith, causing goosebumps to rise on his arm.

_Don’t laugh ok_

**_I’m not gonna laugh_**

_I sorta dreamt about you? About us. I mean, I don’t really know what you look like, but idk somehow I knew it was you in the dream and not just you, there were others WHATEVER. Ugh, it was all really nonsense anyway._

**_What happened?_**

_I dreamt that we were in space. Or maybe we were in a cafe. Or a space cafe lol._

**_Was it not clear?_**

_No, well, sorta. Castle, school, military, forests, open plains, it all kept shifting and yet repeated over and over. I dreamt of you and me coming together some way, somehow. I dreamt of my friends too, but they were your friends too. I dreamt of all the different ways we always came together. Some people were missing sometimes, but there was always you and me._

The pen paused against his skin again.

_I dreamt that you left. I dreamt that you always leave…_

Keith frowned at the writing squishing into tinier font against his wrist as his soulmate ran out of room before his writing started up again, smaller now and higher up his arm.

_You try to leave before anyone leaves you._

**_What_** _You distanced yourself and blocked people out before they could do it to you._ ** _Hey_** _But I’ll never do that to you, you know that right?_

Blue ink began to write itself onto his other arm in a messier scrawl.

_I dreamt that we always found each other again. Or maybe I wished that part into existence. I know you don’t like the whole fate and destiny thing, but I find comfort in knowing I have you… Even if you don’t always respond, I know you’re there._

_I just wanted to make sure you know that I’m right here for you too. Unless you ask me to leave you alone, I’ll always be here for you._

_Sorry. That’s all I wanted to say._

Keith felt inclined to write an angry message back for the presumptions made about him just then, until he noticed the ink smudging in small drops. He could swear he felt wet drops falling onto his arm—tears.

_it was just a weird dream anyway_

**_I think_**

Keith hesitated. He truly didn’t know what to say. This body’s memories nor his own supplied him with anything. _Fuck it,_ he thought.

**_I think you must be a wizard._**

_What???_

**_There are billions of people on Earth alone, trillions more of different lifeforms outside our little planet, and much much more than our brains could ever possibly comprehend in the whole universe. Hundreds of thousands of different solar systems and intelligent life and foreign species and alien cultures and for some reason, no matter where I am or where I go, I always find you. Or you find me._ **

_Whoa._

**_That was what your dream was about?_ **

_Yeah, uh, in prettier words, yes. I think so._

**_Thank you._ **

_Oh, I mean, I was just stating the obvious… I may be your soulmate or whatever, but I’m like, here for you, as a friend or as company or whatever_

It was strange being able to feel the tells of his soulmate’s embarrassment in the way his pen touched his skin. Keith couldn’t help smiling at the shaky blue words as they struggled to write.

_Right also, um, thank you too for hearing out my weird ass dream. I think I’m gonna knock out now. Talk tomorrow?_

**_Yeah. Good night._**

_Sweet dreams, Red :)_

As tiredness swept over him, Keith let memories of this universe sink in. Sleepless nights spent writing to each other, days spent drawing and doodling and snarking to each other, fear and excitement swirling together with each tentative interaction.

For just a moment, in the space between drowsiness and unconsciousness, he let himself believe that his and Lance’s destinies were truly intertwined.

__________

He woke up the next morning back in his own universe and fought down the lump in his throat at the sight of his own room. He ignored every single text, call, or other form of contact sent his way, so he could wallow in the despair that was his blossoming feelings for Lance. No matter how he tried to stop it or deny it, falling for Lance was as inevitable as waking up each day. And Keith dreaded each morning.

__________

“Hey, Mullet,” Lance said, shooting him a crooked smile, bordering on shy. His head was slightly downcast and his hand scratched at the back of his neck, a nervous gesture. “You still on for helping me with math tonight?”

Keith was way too well-practiced in keeping a poker face when surprised, but the problem was that that meant he didn’t react immediately as he busied himself with _not_ reacting inappropriately. So as it was, Keith stared blankly at Lance as if he hadn’t spoken.

He was in his original universe right? Keith did a quick scan of his memories and, yes, he was in his own universe, but he and Lance barely talked in this uni—Oh.

In a blink, Keith had perused yesterday’s memories of an alternate Keith using his body and betraying his trust by approaching Lance and acting _way_ too friendly. Keith pushed down the tinge of pleasantness that arose in his chest, seeing how his Lance had been very receptive to Keith talking to him even though up till then Keith had basically been avoiding him for most of the time they’ve known each other.

“If you’re busy, it’s fine. I know you’re always sorta doing your own thing—“ Lance quickly backtracked, and Keith was startled into responding, “No, I’m free tonight! I already said yesterday that I could.”

Lance relaxed at that, which would’ve been imperceptible to Keith if he hadn’t experienced so much interaction with Lance in all other universes.

He mentally cursed whichever Keith had possessed his body yesterday.

It went as well as could be expected, as in, it didn’t go well at all. Lance kept getting distracted and Keith was already irritated and on edge. It didn’t take long for them to begin arguing over something stupid and for Keith to storm out of the library.

__________

Keith was in a sour mood upon returning to his own universe, because he had spent a month in a universe in which he and Lance were roommates and madly in love. He quickly pushed away the memories he’d made in that month and repressed the now-distant memories of that body in favor of scanning through what his own body had been doing in the time he was away.

Keith was alarmed to find Lance just as prominent in these memories as well.

“Fuck!” Keith cursed loudly, flopping onto his stomach and burying his face in his pillow.

He couldn’t even trust himself anymore.

After wallowing in frustrated misery for a while, Keith rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. How could he stop his other selves from interfering with his life?

He jumped out of bed when he realized he _could_ do something. He wrote out a note to stick to his wall hanging by his bed. It would be in his line of sight whenever he woke up or went to sleep, so whatever version of himself came along, they would see this message first and foremost.

_Don’t mess with my life. Stop getting unnecessarily close to Lance and the others. Even if_ you _want it, I don’t want it. This is my universe, not yours, so don’t fuck around with it._

When he left the room, his group was visibly concerned with his renewed distance, as he became even worse than before.

They decided he was having an off-day, and that was all it was chalked up to in the end because Keith wasn’t even allowed to stay in his own universe for longer than a day this time around.

He promptly woke up the next day cuddled up to Lance’s chest.

A week passed before he woke up and almost cried at the sight of his own ceiling. When he shifted onto his side, he was surprised to find several other notes left for him. Skimming his body’s memories let him know that the alternates in his body had written it as a message to the original body’s owner, as in himself.

_Don’t mess with my life. Stop getting unnecessarily close to Lance and the others. Even if_ you _want it, I don’t want it. This is my universe, not yours, so don’t fuck around with it._

***

_Yeah, no. Even though you originate from this universe, how can you claim this universe as your own when you share it with so many other versions of yourself, willingly or not? It’s sort of surreal in itself that you’re trying to fight yourself like this. Get over yourself dickhead._

_***_

_While I want to write the same thing as the above, since it’s already been written, I might as well just add on. Also, I had a good day here and I’m not gonna let your note ruin it. You are me. You are also the Keith that wrote the above note. And we are you. The only thing differentiating us is our experiences but even those aren’t all that unique to us because we SHARE memories. Even though it’s not exactly the same as being there, it’s damn well close enough._

_Fuck, what I’m saying is, what we feel is consistent across universes. I know how stubborn I am, so I know it’s likely you’ll either listen or rip this note up, but I think it’s important to note my view on this: All universes is ours and not simultaneously. I’ll treat each universe as if it’s my home because my home isn’t a piece of land or planet or building. It’s wherever my family is. It’s wherever Lance or Shiro or Pidge or Hunk is. No matter the different memories we may share from universe to universe._

_So fuck you._

Keith didn’t rip the notes up, but he didn’t exactly listen to the words either. He hid it away instead, deep in a drawer he never used.

__________

“Keith, you know, you’ve been real on and off with us lately,” Lance said, annoyance seeping into his tone.

Another month had passed and Keith’s abrupt distance hadn’t let up though it only happened in intervals as he was waking up in different universes more than ever before. A part of him, deep, deep inside of him, was terrified.

“Seriously, I’ll think maybe you’re finally opening up to us, opening up to _me_ and then you just—do this!” Lance exclaimed, flailing his arms at Keith’s general direction, but Keith continued to feign ignorance.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m acting exactly the same.”

Lance got in Keith’s path and placed his hands heavily on Keith’s shoulders, not allowing him to leave. Keith tensed up, but forced himself to meet Lance’s eyes with a level stare.

Lance looked troubled. Keith gritted his teeth, trying to steel himself through a twinge of guilt.

“Is this about us?”

Keith couldn’t manage to keep the surprise out of his face at Lance’s question. He quickly scanned his memories for some major event to clue into what Lance was talking about, but his alternate either didn’t remember the event, or Keith wasn’t understanding the question.

“What,” his voice came out hoarse so he cleared his throat and tried again, “What do you mean?”

“Last week? When we hung out and I stayed even when everyone left.”

Keith latched onto the scene of his alternate suggesting the group hanging out in his dorm room—a rare occasion which had everyone eagerly agreeing to hang out. The alternate and Lance had talked late into the night, laying side by side on his bed. It had been been intimate, sure, but for that Keith, it must have been normal for him to be close with Lance, so it likely hadn’t registered as something all that major in his memories.

“You can’t ignore it. Something happened between us then. I know you felt it too,” Lance continued, oblivious to Keith’s thoughts as he drew him in closer.

Keith definitely remembered it now. In his memory, Lance filled up his view, he was leaning in, and Keith wanted to bridge the gap too, he _wanted,_ until he suddenly turned away looking at the blank wall where Keith’s note to any alternates in his body had been.

“I,” Keith said dumbly. It was hard to think when Lance was taking his hand, holding it tenderly as he stepped ever closer.

“Keith, I think like you,” Lance said quietly, and the words blew Keith’s breath away. “How do you feel about me?”

“I,” Keith tried again. He tried to swallow but his throat felt swollen and his head was buzzing. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t _breathe._ He needed air. “I—I need to go.”

Keith pulled away from Lance and rushed out of there, running up the stairs three at a time until he made it to his dorm room and collapsed in his bed. He must have been exhausted or hit his head on the way down because he was out like a light the moment his head touched the pillow.

__________

He roused to the sound of a few people murmuring around him, but his body was heavy so he chose not to stir just yet, letting the comforting voices wash over him, bring him slowly to wakefulness.

“…a week now…”

“How much longer…”

“…go rest.”

“I’m staying.”

Honing in on Lance’s voice, Keith pushed through his sluggish awakening. As he became more aware of his surroundings, he found his body was not lying down, but vertical. He was weightless and immobile. His fingers twitched, resisting his attempt to move.

The voices started talking over each other, he couldn’t tell which was Lance. Then the sound of rushing air surrounded him, followed shortly by gravity pushing his body down.

Arms encircled him and he sank into the warmth, letting his eyes rest for a final few seconds before he opened them. He first caught sight of Shiro, watching him with concern, then Hunk, Pidge, Allura, and Coran. 

“Keith,” Lance’s voice reverberated by his cheek, filled with relief. His arms tightened around him as Keith tried to pull himself up. “Hey, buddy, take it easy.” His voice was so soft, Keith’s chest ached with it.

Lance set him down on a bed, sitting himself down on a nearby chair. The rest of them crowded around him, worry and stress etched on all their faces.

“How are you feeling?” Shiro asked.

Keith shrugged, looking around. The whole room was white with the occasional blue streak lining alien tech. He was in the medical wing of the Castle of Lions, his mind supplied reluctantly. Memories seemed to trickle through his head like syrup, slow and sluggish and hard to grasp.

“What happened?” Keith asked hoarsely.

“Haggar,” Allura— _Princess_ Allura answered grimly. At Keith’s blank expression, she became alarmed. “Don’t you remember?”

The memories came in blurry flashes. Haggar—dark witch—high priestess of the Druids—caught him during a mission—

Keith winced, holding his head as it began to pound mercilessly. Shiro’s arm came around his shoulders, a comforting weight.

“I remember…bits,” Keith said, once the headache became manageable.

“Can you tell us what you remember?” Allura asked urgently, but before Keith could respond, Shiro spoke.

“Princess, I think we should have this discussion at a later time. He needs to rest.”

The other paladins nodded their heads in agreement while Allura’s jaw tensed.

“We have been at a standstill for a whole movement! We can’t wait another tick. While he’s asleep, Haggar threatens to unravel everything we and our coalition are fighting to protect!”

Coran placed a hand on her shoulder and she instantly deflated, holding a hand to her forehead, distress lining her whole face.

“We’re all stressed,” Hunk spoke in a reassuring voice, despite looking tired and strung out himself, “but right now, we should all get some rest.”

Pidge nodded. “Hunk’s right. We’re safe for now, Keith’s awake, and we may finally have a lead on what Haggar’s up to with his input. I dunno about you guys, but I think this calls for a celebration nap.”

“Agreed,” Lance and Hunk chimed in together.

__________

After some much needed sleep, Keith wasn’t sure how to feel about waking up to the same white ceiling of the medbay. There was a strangely large amount of universes where he was in space, so really he shouldn’t have been so surprised, but this one felt different.

His headache was gone, thankfully, however the memories of this universe still felt weirdly sluggish. They didn’t come to him easily, not without following a trail of memories first.

He turned onto his side and that was when he noticed he wasn’t alone. Lance was precariously settled in the seat next to his bed, asleep. What were they in this universe?

Keith furrowed his brow, thinking hard.

_“Uh, the name’s Lance?”_

_“We did it. We are a good team.”_

_“I’m like the cool, ninja, sharpshooter.”_

_“Okay, okay, calm down.”_

_“Hey man.”_

Lance, blue paladin, self-declared rival, right-hand man. Keith watched Lance for a long moment, considering him. They fought each other a lot, they also fought side-by-side just as often. Lance was the one who antagonized him the most, but he was also the one he began to build the most trust with before…before he left.

_I dreamt that you left. I dreamt that you always leave…_

Keith shook his head, trying to focus. He joined the Blade of Marmora. They needed to gather intel on a suspicious Galran ship that was always somehow evading their radars, disappearing off to unknown locations and reappearing randomly. They didn’t know it was the ship Haggar had been residing in. They sent Keith in.

Lance shifted, mumbling a little. Keith snapped back to the present, watching the other boy’s eyes flutter open a crack, checking Keith drowsily. Seeing he was awake, Lance blinked his eyes fully open and sat up straight.

“You’re awake,” he said, surprised. “Are you feeling better?”

Keith pushed himself to sitting position. “Yeah, physically, I guess.”

Lance quirked a small, awkward smile and prompted, “And mentally?”

“A mess,” Keith answered honestly.

Alone in the dim light of the medbay with the boy he trusted his life with and who returned such trust, he felt he could afford some honesty.

“I think all of us can say the same, ha,” Lance joked weakly, scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry, it’s been a while since…since we’ve seen you. When we heard from the Blade that Haggar had captured you, I…”

Lance looked down, his knuckles turning white as his fists tightened in his lap, but his whole body shook even as he tried to contain it.

“Lance—“

An alarm blared, red lights flashing in warning and startling them both to their feet. They glanced at each other briefly and then they were rushing to get into their gear and meet with the others.

In his urgency, his memories seemed to get the message and quickly provided him with where his red paladin armor was stored, never mind that he wasn’t actually a paladin anymore. Muscle memory and adrenaline had him changed in seconds and then he was off to the Bridge where the rest of the team were quickly convening.

Allura was already pulling up a screen, focusing in on the threat nearing the Castle-ship.

“Galra warship,” Pidge said, alarmed.

A screen pulled open, revealing their intruder to be a man with long, white hair and a disarming smile. “I bear you no ill will, paladins of Voltron. I only wish to speak.”

“Lotor,” Allura said warily. “How did you find us?”

“Lotor?” Keith repeated, processing his familiar face. He knew Lotor from a few other universes, but he was a strange one, always teetering between being a friend in some universes and an enemy in others.

“Saved your coalition friends from some trouble and they pointed me in the right direction,” Lotor answered easily. “I also brought along someone you’ll find useful on the way.”

An small beaked alien popped his head into the screen, his multiple arms waving in greeting.

“Slav!” Several voices exclaimed.

“What are you playing at?” Allura demanded. “What is it that you want?”

Lotor’s smile faded, replaced by a grim expression. “I know what Haggar’s planning, and I want to put a stop to it. While we haven’t exactly gotten along in the past, our interests align in this case, so it would be to our mutual benefit that you allow me to help you.”

“You’re suggesting a truce?” Shiro asked in disbelief.

“What? No way! How can we trust that he won’t sabotage us instead?” Lance huffed. “He’s Zarkon’s _son_.”

“Unfortunately, there is no time for me to gain your trust. As we speak, that witch continues closer to her outrageous goal. So I can only implore you take me at my word, and if nothing else, believe me when I say I am _not_ my father.”

They all paused as they considered his words, then Slav’s voice jumped in, “There is a 91 and 4/100ths of a percent of realities in which Lotor tells the truth and helps Voltron. However in 43 percent of these realities, it ends in Lotor’s betrayal and the subsequent deaths of Lotor and or his generals.”

They all stared at Slav in surprise. For the rest of the team, it was likely because of the percentages that went in their favor. Even Lotor looked taken aback. Maybe he hadn’t calculated that his chances for death were quite that high in seeking help from Voltron. As for Keith, it was all of the above and also Slav himself. An expert in alternate realities.

With that, they finally relented and let Lotor aboard. Lotor explained how Haggar had visited Beta Traz while Slav had still been prisoner there, requesting to see him. While most Galra sought Slav out for his genius tech, she sought him out to ask about alternate realities, or more precisely, her likely futures.

“It’s not my fault she made all the wrong steps, leading to her own demise,” Slav said with a haughty look. “Nothing good comes from messing with the large amount of quintessence that she has. It creates space-time temporal fissures, which mathematically make higher probabilities for alternate realities in which she and her family perish.”

“ _Her family?_ ” Allura choked out, incredulous. She looked to Lotor, whose expression had gone eerily icy.

“After learning from Slav that she was basically doomed, she began…experimenting,” Lotor muttered darkly, his eyes briefly landing on Keith.

It was then that Keith’s mind pulled up a blurry memory, his body forced into a constant stasis, rarely conscious. One of those rare moments, he had been pulled to consciousness by a tall figure with long white hair and light purple skin, who had observed him with a curious expression before moving on, examining the rest of the room Keith was kept in. That figure must have been Lotor.

“I only learned the full extent of her plans recently,” Lotor went on, his face twisting with disgust. “She came to me, she wished for me to come with her.”

“Okay, wait, I’m really confused,” Lance interrupted, earning a frown from Lotor. “You keep saying stuff about her plans and how bad they are and that she’s getting close, but you still haven’t said what they actually are!”

“She plans to pierce through to another reality,” Lotor answered shortly. “She wishes to have her happy ending with her family.”

Hunk raised a finger, his expression just as confused as Lance. “Uh, so why did she ask you to go with her? Are you—”

Lotor’s eyes flashed dangerously and Hunk quickly shut up. “That witch is _not_ my mother. My mother was honorable and wise. My mother died a long time ago. And so did my father.”

Lotor closed his eyes and took a deep breath, collecting himself. When he opened his eyes once more, he was all business once again. “The problem is, when she attempts to leave this reality behind for her happy ending, the backlash will be too much, she will destroy this reality. The whole universe and everyone in it, gone.”

Dreaded silence befell them.

“Any other questions you may have, Slav can answer instead. I wish to retire for now,” Lotor murmured quietly.

He and Allura shared a long look before she finally spoke, just as quietly, “I’ll show you to your quarters.”

Once Allura returned, they began discussing what they needed to do. Lotor could lead them to Haggar, but from there they needed a solid plan. Keith, never one to be able to sit around planning, noticed Slav was finally alone at the other end of the room.

He glanced back at the others who were busy arguing and discussing to notice him leaving the group to sit near the small alien.

“Hey, uh, Slav?” Keith greeted awkwardly to catch the weird alien’s attention.

Slav turned to Keith with wide eyes, fascinated the moment he had his eyes on him. “Oh yes, you’re the one who Haggar tried her draft experiments on.”

Keith grimaced. Even thought the memories were blurry, he could at least remember they had been unpleasant. “Uh, yeah, about that? Do you know what exactly Haggar did? My memories aren’t too clear—“

“Considering this is the origin that makes perfect sense. Only the Keith of this reality will have fully functional memories here, regardless that you are a parallel,” Slav said succinctly, catching Keith off-guard with his matter-of-fact tone.

“The origin? Parallel?” Keith repeated dumbly. He shook his head impatiently. “No, look, I’m from a completely different universe. Where I’m from, I never went to space, or joined some huge space war. I’m usually just a student down on Earth, attending college and doing homework and all that.”

Slav listened to him with a deadpan expression as if Keith was being stupid. “Haggar’s experiment on this reality’s Keith scrambled all of his parallel realities. You are one of them.”

“What, but…what?” Keith huffed, confused.

Slav sighed, “Every reality in which _you_ are essentially the same, those versions of you are all intersecting with each other. There are infinite realities, infinite timelines, but it is in this one that your problem originates, this reality is the origin and it is this reality that you, and all other alternate versions you may have intersected with, reflect. Once it is fixed, you and all your parallels will go back to being just that. No longer intersecting, just mirrors of each other fitted in your own reality.”

Keith blinked a few times in disbelief. “Really? I can go back to my reality and—and stay there?”

Slav nodded, satisfied that Keith seemed to understand what he was saying.

“So how do I fix it?” Keith asked eagerly.

“You don’t,” Slav answered simply.

Keith’s expression dropped instantly, before turning to rage. “What? But you just said!”

“It was fixed the moment your team rescued you!” Slav exclaimed in a hurry, flailing his arms about as if that would protect him from Keith’s anger. “Space and time don’t fully line up across realities. Some versions of you may have only intersected for a week in their time, while for others it could last a few years.”

Slav must have noticed Keith looking more frazzled by the thought of it continuing for years to come now that he had the possibility of it ending.

He continued more calmly, “It is temporary. For every version of you, it may have already passed or it may keep going for much longer yet, but it has and will always pass.”

It was like a huge weight lifted off Keith’s chest as he listened to Slav. He wasn’t quite ready to believe him, nor was he sure he fully understood, but he locked his words deep into his chest. He imagined he might be able to trust in them one day even if not now.

He turned toward his team, who were still squabbling. Lance caught his gaze and shouted, “Keith! What are you doing over there! Come back here! And bring Slav!”

Keith felt an involuntary smile curve his lips up and he responded, “Yeah, yeah, we’re coming!”

Keith stayed with them through adrenaline-pumped days that passed in a blur, fighting alongside his team, beside Lance. They had a brush with death as they defeated one of Haggar’s robeasts. Afterward, when they were back inside the Castle-ship, out of their armor and drained of energy in the lounge, Lance laughed until Keith was laughing with him and the rest of the team followed suit.

Keith thought he wouldn’t mind laying down his life here, for them.

Lance’s touches seemed to linger on Keith’s arm or shoulder or hand each time they brushed. He watched Keith with a long gaze each night he left to his room in the Castle. And once, when Keith slashed down an droid aimed at Lance and Lance shot down another that had been behind him, they shared a look that sent electricity shooting up and down Keith’s spine.

When they finally caught up to Haggar—or Honerva, as Allura stubbornly called her—Lotor was their saving grace.

In the midst of her insanity and destruction, he walked up to her and spoke her down. No more rage to fuel her, the quintessence she had taken in finally began to break down her body, and Lotor whispered something that caused her to smile in her last moment before she was gone altogether, into orbs of light, a morbidly beautiful and simple end to the most dangerous opponent they’d ever faced.

And in the aftermath, Lotor proved himself to be _not_ of the 43 percent that betrayed them. The Galra Empire, which had continued to war internally for a new ruler, kneeled to Lotor who promised a new era of peace alongside Voltron, the universe’s legendary defender.

__________

“I don’t want to go to sleep,” Keith whispered into the darkness of the room as if he were admitting a secret. Maybe he was.

The war was over, the cleanup was in progress, the coalition upheld the peace. For all intents and purposes, he should be at peace too, but his hands were trembling.

Lance held him closer, more firmly. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Keith’s breath caught in his throat and he knew why he dreaded the morning.

“You can’t promise that.”

“ _All_ of us will still be here for you, Keith, even when we’re back on Earth. We’re a team, even if Voltron is no longer needed.” Lance took his hand and intertwined their fingers. Keith shifted so he could see him and felt his heart stutter in his chest as Lance looked earnestly back at him. “Don’t go back to the Blade. Stay with me.”

Keith couldn’t answer about the Blade of Marmora. He knew this reality’s Keith still wanted to find out about his mother. He couldn’t take that decision away from him. But there was one thing he could say for sure. “I want to stay with you.”

Lance smiled and Keith smiled back, leaning against him and letting darkness take over.

__________

Keith opened his eyes to see Lance, sitting at the edge of his bed. The other boy tensed up as soon as their eyes met and got up immediately. He took a few steps back, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“I was just checking on you. Your door was unlocked,” he explained. Everything about him was the same and yet different.

Keith sat up, staring down at his lap, giving himself a brief moment to remember the team he’d gotten to know in that already distant reality. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let them go in the next breath out.

A torrent of his own memories rose up unbidden, of all his alternate selves in this reality, talking to Lance, laughing with him, pining over him, wondering endlessly about the lingering looks and touches, whispering into the night together after a hang out, hands close, but not quite touching. Keith wanted to bridge the gap—of course he wanted to.

He knew these feelings were his own too, and his alternates—they _were_ him. If he were braver, he’d act the exact same way. If he were less guarded, he’d say the same things, and most of all if he stopped trying to convince himself otherwise, he _felt_ the same things. These were his memories, not someone else’s.

He looked up at Lance, who somehow stood more and more awkwardly, and he remembered suddenly that only a few hours prior, Lance admitted he liked him. And Keith had left in his panic. 

“Sorry, you just ran off so suddenly. I was worried after a bit,” Lance said quickly, inching closer to the door. “I know I should leave you alone, let you process shit, but—”

“Wait, Lance, _fuck_ , I’m—I like you too,” Keith said quickly, eyes wide and boring into stormy blue ones. “I always have, no matter where I am, no matter what, I’m—I—”

Keith stumbled over his blankets tangled around his legs and let out a pained grunt as he crashed into an undignified heap on the floor.

“Holy shit! Keith, are you okay?” Lance asked frantically, helping him up.

Keith didn’t answer. He took one look at the face only inches from his and he was gone. He was in love with Lance, and he knew the other boy wasn’t there, not in this universe, not yet, but he could wait as long as he needed for him to catch up. Because Lance liked him and Keith _loved_ him.

He was kissing Lance then without really thinking about it, and Lance sat frozen in surprise for only a second before melting into it and then they were smiling against each other’s lips and laughing into each other’s mouths and god, he has been such an idiot this whole time.

__________

The next time Keith woke up in a different universe, he was part of a secretive group of resistance fighters, stuck in the middle of a war, trying to protect Earth from a tyrant from another planet. It was all very nostalgic.

When he scanned his memories, he saw his friends—no, his _family_ , was a prominent part of it. They had been a team until Keith left in an attempt to distance himself from them.

This Keith, although already head over heels in love with Lance, fervently believed the other cadet would never like him even though he had likely been to plenty of other universes that prove otherwise.

And when he opened his communicator to see a nasty message written there to warn him away from doing anything that involved getting close to Lance or the rest of his team or, y’know, basically anything that pertained to Keith’s happiness, Keith had an equally nasty message to write back.

__________

One day, Shiro mentioned that Keith has really grown into his own, where before he had always seemed so lost. Keith realized a whole year had passed without him waking up somewhere else, and he smiled at his best friend and then at the rest of the table. Shiro, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Allura, and even Professor Coran by happenstance, sat before him. He didn’t have to fear one day never coming back to his own universe, his own reality. Even if it did continue, he didn’t even have to fear being alone and aimless. He knew now where his home was, and he was here to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> This whole fic was a mess honestly and I feel like I could’ve done it so much better, but I’m learning to just let some stuff be. Besides I wrote this as a de-stressor for myself. (It’s a hotpot of plot bunnies that I decided to mix together into one plot like a madman, and I don’t know if I pulled it off lol)
> 
> (Also, if anyone noticed this is similar to Across Lifetimes, well, that makes sense cuz a lot of the plot bunnies in here emerged from there.)
> 
> I hope some of you liked it anyway! Leave a comment and/or kudos if you’d like and thanks so much for reading!


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